SOPA hearing yesterday: There are not enough /facepalms in the world

[pppppppppppppppppp]

I'm not sure if people have posted about it yet, but the hearing on SOPA was yesterday, and oh my god do I want to punch so many congressmen in the face.

Basically, it was a bunch of old white guys who knew absolutely nothing about technology and didn't bother to learn. One congressman said "If I had a dime for every time someone in the hearing used the phrase "I'm not a nerd" or "I'm no tech expert, but they tell me..." I'd have a large number of dimes and still feel intensely worried about the future of the uncensored Internet." The main backer of the bill openly confessed several times he didn't understand how the internet works, yet he acted like all the internet engineers opposing the bill were "wrong".

There was also this juicy quote from a reporter that pretty much sums it up: "If this were surgery, the patient would have run out screaming a long time ago. But this is like a group of well-intentioned amateurs getting together to perform heart surgery on a patient incapable of moving. "We hear from the motion picture industry that heart surgery is what's required," they say cheerily. "We're not going to cut the good valves, just the bad - neurons, or whatever you call those durn thingies.'

This is terrifying to watch. It would be amusing - there's nothing like people who did not grow up with the Internet attempting to ask questions about technology very slowly and stumbling over words like "server' and "service" when you want an easy laugh. Except that this time, the joke's on us."

Almost every single amendment to the bill was blocked without any meaningful discussion and it looks like they're rushing this bill out the door despite the consequences just so they can get it over with.

Does this piss anyone else off, or is it just me?

 

[CODE-D]

The internet runs on hamsters running on wheels stationed in omaha right?

 

[Wintermoot]

it,s like watching a bunch of mentally challenged people trying to operate a highly complicated nuclear power plant.

I honestly doubt ANY of the people backing this bill touched anything more complicated then a mechanical type writer.

 

[Instant K4rma]

I'm sure 80% of the congressmen arguing for this bill wouldn't know how to open a web browser if placed in front of a computer. Talk about ill-informed. All of these Internets must seem so daunting to all of these old men.

 

[Cowabungaa]

"If I had a dime for every time someone in the hearing used the phrase "I'm not a nerd" or "I'm no tech expert, but they tell me..." I'd have a large number of dimes and still feel intensely worried about the future of the uncensored Internet." The main backer of the bill openly confessed several times he didn't understand how the internet works, yet he acted like all the internet engineers opposing the bill were "wrong".

This is why I fucking hate politics and even democracy in general, because it's all about the most popular people making decisions instead of the most knowledgeable.

It pains me to, say, see people who have zero hands-on experience in the field of education make extremely important decisions about the future of education in our country. Or the internet, in the case of SOPA.

 

[Qitz]

Well according to the email I just got from Reddits petition, they cancelled their vote and disbanded for the year.

BREAKING NEWS: Because of immense public pressure, the House Judiciary Committee cancelled their vote on the bill that would kill Internet innovation and free speech -- and adjourned for the rest of the year!

Over the last 36 hours, over 97,000 people like you signed our joint petition with reddit against this bill, and thousands more called their representatives. The Internet fought back to protect the Internet -- and we won, for now.

We now need to assemble our Internet army for next year, when this bill will come up again. Can you help us reach 100,000 signers on the petition?

Click here to spread the VICTORY! news and share the grassroots petition on Facebook.

(Then, pass this email on to friends so they can sign the petition here.)

Our petition got a ton of attention in Washington, DC. Here's what some leading news outlets reported yesterday:

Washington Post: "The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Reddit have been pushing a campaign arguing that SOPA, as written, would harm future innovation."

Roll Call: "A flurry of liberal and conservative groups issued last-minute pleas in the hours before the House Judiciary Committee prepared to vote on its latest version of a controversial intellectual property bill, known as the Stop Online Piracy Act.

'Join @reddit and PCCC (@BoldProgressive) in saving the Internet!' the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal advocacy group, tweeted urging followers to sign an online petition opposing the bill. The missive was paired with a letter signed by the founders of Twitter, YouTube and other tech giants."

But the fight is far from over -- big corporations are still pushing hard for this bill. We won the battle with today's delay, but we still have to win the war against Internet censorship.

Click here to spread today's VICTORY news and share the petition with your friends on Facebook.

(Then, pass this email on to friends so they can sign the petition here.)

Thanks for taking action. Our action together made a big difference!

-- Jason Rosenbaum, Progressive Change Campaign Committee (J-Ro on reddit) and Erik Martin, reddit General Manager

So the battle was won but the war may have to wage on.

 

[DannyJBeckett]

The hearing has been adjourned until the New Year

I.E.: It's been adjourned until people forget about it and they can pass it through without anyone noticing.

Democracy at it's finest [/sarcasm]

 

[dyre]

I think its pretty damn funny. You gotta love people who have absolutely no clue about modern technology pretending they do/wanting to influence it anyway.

But hey, its you guys voting these fuckers into place. Considering how much the internet influences the modern world, its beyond me how someone can think its a good idea to put an old fart who cant even use a TV remote properly in charge of it.

It's pretty much voting for these fuckers or another set of fuckers though. It's not like there's a Senator Wyden running for congressional office in every state.

 

[Saint of M]

How come I still get this feeling of not fear but terror about the topic?

 

[enzilewulf]

I think its pretty damn funny. You gotta love people who have absolutely no clue about modern technology pretending they do/wanting to influence it anyway.

But hey, its you guys voting these fuckers into place. Considering how much the internet influences the modern world, its beyond me how someone can think its a good idea to put an old fart who cant even use a TV remote properly in charge of it.

When it comes to voting in the US its like choosing between bowls of shit at this point.

OT: Know what I love? this bill was suppose to be voted on yesterday when the US was still in threat of a government shut down. Instead of trying to help find a deal they wanted to fuck around on the threat of interwebs pirates. Seriously you old fucks hows about making the government not be in threat of shutting down for once before you try such minor topics compared to the bigger threats that are on your plate.

 

[XT inc]

I think this sums it up pretty well. Why are they allowed to vote on stuff they know nothing about, maybe they should look into measures preventing uninformed clods making decisions about stuff they are baffled by.

 

[Valagetti]

Don't worry their old people, hopefully they'll die soon.
I think it won't pass cause it'll breach the 1st amendment.

 

[Irridium]

Oh man, I feel you.

"Well, I'm no nerd... but these experts tell me..." was uttered quite a bit in some form or another.

Most of the people voting FOR the bill admitted to having little-to-no knowledge about it.

Every amendment that would have made the bill less vague/prevent abuse were all shot down. While amendments that made it worse for everyone passed just fine.

The people passing it have not allowed ANY expert on this speak.

The people pushing it can't distinguish the difference between an ISP address or DNS server.


The people pushing it simply will not listen to reason or fact.

They are trying to RUSH this bill without considering any long-term ramifications it may have. Though they might be coming around, by delaying the vote by a month to listen to cybersecurity experts' opinions.

This whole thing is just... awful. Just plain awful. Because if it's one thing huge corporations need, it's more power to fuck people over.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

this is because America is a democracy you guys

you're just mad because of all the freedom that's being delivered right to your house, along with the low economic disparity.

I swear the German-American Bund would've had no trouble passing their shit with these old geezers running the country

 

[ReservoirAngel]

I think this sums it up pretty well. Why are they allowed to vote on stuff they know nothing about, maybe they should look into measures preventing uninformed clods making decisions about stuff they are baffled by.

That 2nd panel is the best thing I've ever seen.

OT: This thing proves a point I keep making in various places - they need some younger people in the US Government. It's all stuffy middle-aged or older white dudes that have no idea about modern technology so when something like this comes up the level of discourse is about as intelligent as my mum trying to explain the internet to my dad. One of them has an idea but no real knowledge and the other one just doesn't know or seem to care.

And when your political debates on an incredibly important bill amount to two 50+ year old people arguing over fucking Google Maps, you've got problems.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

Well I'm glad it wasn't passed (for now at least...) but has anyone else seen the commercials in favor for SOPA? I get angry every time I see it. There isn't even any content to it, they just use as many fear-inducing words and phrases as possible

I actually lost count at how many times they mention "stealing american jobs"
-__-

EDIT:

Almost every single amendment to the bill was blocked without any meaningful discussion and it looks like they're rushing this bill out the door despite the consequences just so they can get it over with.

On a similar note: it looks as if the bill is not quite as delayed as advertised.
source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111216/11102617108/sopa-markup-runs-out-time-likely-delayed-until-2012.shtml

so it seems they really are rushing to a completely uninformed decision :\

 

[4RM3D]

They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!

William, you were wrong. They can apparently take away our freedom.

 

[Freaky Lou]

This is why there should be one-term limits for congressional office. If you can't stay in there until the end of time, the incentive to do what lobbyists want is much lower, and we don't get hopelessly-out-of-touch people making laws about things they don't understand.